This invention relates to decorative appliques, and more particularly, to decorative appliques such as pickguard systems with interchangeable skin for use with stringed instruments.
Decorative appliques have a wide variety of usages. One common use is as part of a pickguard used with musical instruments, notably the guitar. The pickguard is used on guitars in order to prevent damage to the face or surface of the guitar when the strings are played with a pick. A pickguard typically is made of a plastic resin in a desired perimetric shape and mounted by screws or the like. When applied to the face of the body of an electric guitar, the pickguard often is applied to the guitar with certain components, such as the electrical pickups which are mounted to the underside of the pickguard.
Pickguards typically are produced with one particular surface appearance and that appearance remains with the instrument as long as the pickguard is used. Pickguard replacement is generally time consuming and troublesome and not undertaken, particularly when the electronics and pickups have to be removed and reinstalled on the new pickguard. It would be desirable to provide a pickguard that can remain permanently affixed to a guitar yet employ a removable decorative applique, such that the appearance of the guitar can be changed at will by simply replacing the applique on the pickguard.
In accordance with a first aspect, an interchangeable decorative applique comprises a decorative section having a selected surface appearance, the decorative section being shaped to at least partially cover a mounting surface of a base of an item such as a musical instrument, a clear protective sheet shaped to overlie the decorative section, and fasteners for removably fastening the protective sheet over the base such that the decorative section is adapted to be sandwiched between the base and the protective sheet and permitting the protective sheet and underlying decorative sheet to be removed without removing the base.